


Beyond Orange Meadows

by donutsweeper



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Canon, Protective Bucky Barnes, Tenderness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-27 02:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20940866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: Bucky knew Steve far too well but loved him anyway.





	Beyond Orange Meadows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lionessvalenti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/gifts).

> The title is from the poem [Beyond Orange Meadows](https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/beyond_orange_meadows_1112315).

It had been impossible for them to get any time alone when Bucky had still lived at home, not with his parents and sisters all living together in their two bedroom apartment and going to Steve's? That wasn't an option since it was Steve, his mom, and at any given time several boarders and possibly a cousin or two that had recently arrived in the States, all crammed together into a tiny three room pre-law dumbbell tenement. And after Sarah Rogers died those flophouses that Steve stayed in were even worse. Once they'd both grown, found steady work and combined their incomes Steve was able to say goodbye and good riddance to those shitty places and Bucky wasn't going to have to have his sisters underfoot all the time anymore because were able to get a place together.

Their own place.

Sure, it wasn't much to look at; it wasn't one of the fancy places with central heating, but it had a fairly new coal burning stove that heated it up well enough, an icebox for storing their food and both a tub _and _a toilet—which was a hell of a step up from the privies in the yard like Steve's last two places. The walls were pretty thin, which was to be expected since this was Brooklyn, not the Ritz, but all meant was that they had to be a little quiet. Technically two guys being together in the privacy of their own home wasn't illegal, but even as accepting as their neighborhood was, there was no need to be broadcasting it and drawing attention to what they were doing behind closed doors.

The other thing nice about them finally living together was that when Steve was late coming home Bucky would know something happened and could go after him and pull him out of whatever trouble he'd gotten himself into this time. Which was usually the same kind of trouble as it was the last time and the time before that. All in all, it wasn't long before he knew every single alley, doorway, back hall and vacant lot in the immediate area by heart because he was always finding Steve in one of them, over his head in some kind of fight and usually getting the shit beaten out of him.

"Fucking hell, Steve," Bucky grumbled after he sent the two punks who'd been whaling on Steve packing. "How'd you survive long enough to keep getting into these fights, especially before I was here to rescue you?"

"I didn't need rescuing," Steve complained, like Bucky couldn't see he was wiping blood off his split lip or that his eye was starting to swelling and his knuckles were all torn up "Besides, I had them on the—"

"Ropes? Yeah, yeah, I know. You definitely did. But as it happened, I was walking by and I haven't been in a good fight in ages so what was I supposed to do, let you have all the fun?"

"Well, when you put it that way...." Steve bent to pick up his bag but couldn't hide the hiss of pain at the movement so Bucky quickly reached past him and grabbed it himself. 

"Here, I got it." Considering it was pretty light, probably just Steve's usual papers and junk, he thrust it at Steve to carry before Steve could get one of his 'stop treating me like spun glass' lectures going. 

With as little grace as possible, Steve grabbed his stuff and, with a huff, led the way back to their place. They passed no less than a dozen people on the way who knew them and noticed Steve's appearance and said things like "Got in another fight, Rogers?" and "That's some shiner!" and, unfortunately, "Fighting again, Steve? When I think of what your poor mother would say about— " which had Bucky pulling Steve away as fast as he could because someone bringing up Sarah? Especially in a way like that? Yeah, that wasn't going to end well for anybody. 

"Did you eat? I grabbed something at the Automat about an hour ago, but I can probably throw something together if you're hungry."

"Steve," Bucky tried to stop himself from scrubbing a hand over his face in frustration, but it was a lost cause and eventually gave into the urge, "you can barely see out of your eye and if the way you limped up those stairs is any indication, either your knee or back is bothering you too. If I wanted food, I'd make it myself."

The moment they were inside their own apartment with the door safely locked behind them Steve turned around and slipped his hand between two buttons and under Bucky's shirt. "Hungry for something else then?" he teased.

Gently slapping Steve's hands away—more pushing than slapping since the last thing Bucky wanted to do was hurt him further—Bucky shook his head. "You're hurt, Steve. We do anything and I'm going to wind up hurting you further."

"It'll be worth it." But his attempt at a devilish grin caused his lip to start bleeding again and even Steve couldn't hide a bit of a wince at the resulting pain. 

"Hurting you is never worth it. Never."

"But—"

"That doesn't mean I can't do this though." Bucky leaned over and pressed a butterfly kiss into Steve's golden, soft hair and then another on his temple, featherlight and tender, just to the edge of the orange splotch of an old bruise, then another on his cheekbone under his uninjured eye, and then carefully tilted up his chin and placed more kisses down the curve of his neck to his collar, each one as gentle as the last.

"Ooh," Steve moaned softly as Bucky unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and stroked a thumb along his collarbone before peppering it with kisses as well. "Yeah, that's nice."

"See?" Bucky undid another button and then began slowly untucking Steve's shirt, mindful of any hits Steve might have taken to his ribs. "Gentle's good too. I'm never gonna hurt you, Steve, never."

"I know you won't, Buck." Steve reached up and ran his fingers through Bucky's hair. "I shouldn't have even joked about it. You don't have it in you, do you? You're too big a sap for that."

"And now he insults me," Buck mock-protested, throwing his hands up and appealing to the ceiling. "After everything I've done for him."

"It's a good thing you love me."

Bending over, Bucky pressed a kiss onto the tip of his nose. "It is indeed."


End file.
